IRDAI has extended the time limit for withdrawal of life insurance products upto 31st January 2020. Earlier the deadline was 30th November 2019. However, based on representation received from Life Insurance Council and various life insurers requesting for extension of the timelines in order to lack system preparedness and training of personnel required, the IRDAI has extended the time limit. The last few months of the financial year are very crucial for life insurance companies as the bulk of business comes from the last few months. This will give some breather to life insurers.
There has been lot of chaos in the Surveyors Community regarding the exposure draft released by IRDAI. The Surveyors community is extremely dissatisfied with IRDAI exposure draft as it has increased the base limit for insurance survey which will result into loss of business for surveyors. The Surveyors staged a protest on Jantar Mantar and held protest rallies in several parts of India against the draft. They are demanding a rollback in the increase of limit and also review of several provisions in the exposure draft which is detrimental to the interest of the Insurance Surveyors.
IRDAI should give some serious thoughts on the exposure draft taking into account the concerns of the surveyors. The IIISLA was supposed to be an independent body on lines of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. But the exposure draft shows that for most of the activities of the Institute it should take permission from IRDAI. It will severely jeopardize the independence of the Institute and would be detrimental to the functioning of the IIISLA. Even for Online training enrollment permission is required from IRDAI which is not desirable.
In our opinion IRDAI should purely concentrate on Regulatory matters and should not indulge in regular routine matters of functioning of Insurance Intermediaries or similar administrative jobs.
The overall condition of the economy is bad which is having a negative impact on the insurance industry also. The motor insurance portfolio improved during the festive season but again it is feeling the pinch in the wake of low demand. The direct impact can be seen on sale of insurance policies.
The merger of 3 PSUs is on cards and it is expected that in December 2019 some major announcement may be made by the government for merger of PSUs. It is estimated that around 15000 people may be given VRS after the merger.
